FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



SPANISH IRIS. 



Iris Xipli'mm. 



HERE are two species iris so 

 nearly alike both in name and 

 nature that beginners are apt 

 to consider them as one and 

 the same. One is called the 

 English iris (/. Xvpluuiilex) , the 

 other is the Spanish iris (/. 

 Xiphiwm). Both are natives of 

 the Peninsula. They belong to 

 Spain, Portugal, and the Pyre- 

 nees, and by the men of science 

 are regarded as scarcely speci- 

 fically distinct. But in a work 

 of this kind we must not enter 

 into scientific questions except 

 in a very surjerficial way, and 

 it must suffice us to show, not 

 how these two so-called species 

 spring, as it were, from one root, but how they may be 

 distinguished by the amateur who desires to derive from 

 his garden some useful knowledge. 



The Spanish iris flowers earlier than the English, and 

 is the taller of the two, and the more fragrant. The 

 Spanish iris produces a smaller flower than the English. 



